New South Wales

History

Prehistory and early British settlement

Human remains discovered in 1968 and 1974 at Mungo in southwestern New South Wales are the oldest so far uncovered in Australia, dating from about 46,000 to 50,000 years ago. The land was managed by Aboriginal tribes or language groups for tens of thousands of years through a range of traditional practices, including the use of fire to stimulate the growth of valued plants or to clear grasslands for hunting. Fossil records reveal that large prehistoric animals once grazed the land, but they had long been extinct by the time the smaller creatures of ... (100 of 14,091 words)